POWER DEMAND 677 



POWER DEMAND 



The market for electric power is of a most widely distributed 

 character and will always continue to grow with the growth of 

 the community in which it is located. On the other hand, there 

 are many instances in which a hydro-electric development will 

 create its own market by inducing a number of industries to 

 locate in its immediate vicinity, such as at Niagara Falls, etc. 



Whether a market can be found for the power which is to be 

 developed and the price at which this power may be disposed of 

 are two of the first questions to be investigated. This involves a 

 close canvass of the present power consumption for both public 

 and private use, the character of the power demand as to periods 

 of day and season, present and future competition, present rates, 

 and the cost at which power can locally be generated from fuel. 

 From these investigations it is possible to arnve at a fairly close 

 estimate of the required capacity, load factor and value of the 

 service, and future considerations should be based thereon. In 

 the absence of the above information a fairly close estimate of 

 the revenue may be made by comparing the possibilities of the 

 community to be served with those of similar places already 

 developed. 



A typical power market has three main divisions, namely, 

 lighting, manufacturing, and traction. If the greatest demand 

 from each source came at a time different from that of the others, 

 the total demand would be so distributed as greatly to reduce the 

 required maximum capacity of the power plant. As a matter of 

 fact, however, the demand from no one of these sources is uniform, 

 and, furthermore, there is more or less overlapping of these de- 

 mands. The demand for manufacturing purposes is very nearly 

 uniform and, except for a few industries and in exceptional cases, 

 falls between 7 o'clock in the forenoon and 7 o'clock in the after- 

 noon. Practically all the demand for lighting is at night, chiefly 

 in the evening. The period of traction demand is longer than 

 that for either manufacturing or lighting, and embraces prac- 

 tically the entire periods of both. 



The period of lowest combined demand is normally between 

 the hours of midnight and 4 o'clock in the morning. Traction 

 demand begins in earnest about 6 o'clock and is immediately 

 followed by the manufacturing demand. The forenoon period 



